Should Canada do a Uruguay on Pot?

The country of 3.3 million people, tucked between Brazil and Argentina, has legalized marijuana, a variation of the policy rather loosely articulated by Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau in Canada.

Uruguay’s decision to legalize pot doesn’t do justice to what’s actually happening. Cannabis is being legalized all right, but the product is being regulated by the state as never before.

Senior Uruguayan officials insist that the legislation’s aim is to reduce cannabis consumption and encourage the population, especially young people through education programs, to resist using the product. In other words, legalization is a way of reducing consumption.

According to the legislation, they hope that by the state taking over the “importation, exportation, planting, cultivation, harvesting, production, procurement in any capacity, storage, commercialization and distribution of cannabis,” consumption will decline.